15 dead, thousands of homes flooded in central Mexico due to rare winter rain storms

15 dead, homes flooded in central Mexico

MORELIA, Mexico — Fifteen people — including five children — died this week in severe and unseasonable winter storms that closed schools and freeways in central Mexico and flooded thousands of homes, authorities reported Friday.

The heavy rain storms — unusual in Mexico’s normally dry winter season — sent rivers over their banks in the states of Michoacan and neighboring Guanajuato, where the deaths occurred Wednesday and Thursday.

Michoacan Interior Secretary Fidel Calderon Torreblanca said several people are still missing and that at least 2,000 homes were damaged. The federal government declared three Michoacan townships disaster zones, a move that allows them access to federal disaster-relief funds.

The rains also slammed Mexico City and the neighboring State of Mexico, where open sewage canals overflowed and containment banks collapsed.

A mix of drain water and sewage flowed into thousands of homes and blocked major thoroughfares in the metropolis of 20 million people. About 7,500 homes were flooded in the metropolitan area, prompting emergency personnel to ferry people from their homes through chest-high water.

Crews were working Friday to drain flooded areas and put sand bags around the damaged drainage channels.

Skies cleared Friday, and the rains were forecast to stop by the weekend. Rain in central Mexico falls almost exclusively between May and October.

Mexico City lies in an enclosed mountain valley where flooding has been a problem for centuries. Authorities over time have dug deeper and larger drainage tunnels to try to solve the problem, but experts have warned that even those may not be sufficient to handle extremely heavy rainfalls.